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Aluminij produces around 160,000 tpy of aluminium
and employs 900 people directly in
the Mostar region.
KAP declared bankrupt by court
Aluminium producer KAP (Kombinat Aluminijuma
Podgorica), the largest industrial
company in Montenegro, has officially been
declared bankrupt by court. The deadline to
submit plans for restructuring KAP had expired,
judge Dragan Rakocevic said to journalists.
The company will be offered for sale
early in November in the hope of repaying at
least some of the huge debts to creditors: the
talk is of €360m-460m in liabilities. KAP’s
largest creditors are the Montenegrin government
and the Central European Aluminium
Co. (CEAC), an arm of En+ Group which is
controlled by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
The Montenegrin government and CEAC
each own 29.36% of KAP. Further creditors
are foreign banks, including Deutsche Bank,
Hungarian OTP and Russian VTB.
About 1,200 employees are affected by
the bankruptcy. Last year KAP accounted for
4.7% of Montenegro’s GDP and for 30% of
the country’s exports.
rtA demands lower
energy prices in Quebec
Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA) demands that energy
prices be made more competitive to bolster
industrial growth in Quebec. During the Public
Consultation on Energy Issues in Quebec,
the company said that Quebec’s energy policy
must affirm the province’s resolution to offer
lower energy prices for the growth of its
manufacturing sector, including the aluminium
industry. President and CEO of Primary
Metal, Arnaud Soirat, pointed out: “The
world’s most competitive economies rely on
a strong manufacturing sector that fosters
employment growth, provides good wages,
positively influences the trade balance of an
economy and invests more in research and
development than any other sector.” In this
regard, RTA considers the aluminium industry
as a long-term strategic choice for Quebec.
Étienne Jacques, COO of the Primary Metal
division, North America, added: “At the current
energy prices, over three-quarters of the
world’s aluminium smelters benefit from rates
that are lower than Hydro-Québec’s rate for
large industrial users.”
The company agrees in several of the objectives
set out in the Consultation paper.
For example, on greenhouse gas emissions
(GHG), the company exceeds the reduction
targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol. Since
1990, RTA’s aluminium production has increased
by 50% while its GHG emissions
were reduced by 50%. A competitive energy
price would encourage production of aluminium
with the world’s lowest GHG emissions
levels.
Hydro seeks support for pilot plant
Hydro has asked Enova for financial support
in connection with a project to test next-generation
aluminium electrolysis technology at
a pilot plant in Karmøy, Norway. The plant will
have a production capacity of 70,000 tpy with
the aim of testing further developed energyefficient
aluminium cell technology in a fullscale
industrial environment. The Norwegian
government-owned organisation Enova has
established a programme to support energyand
climate-related technology in industry.
Hydro and Enova have been in talks on
how to realise pioneering technology that can
reduce energy consumption and emissions
from Norwegian industry. A 70,000-tonne
pilot plant in the application is estimated to
cost about NKr 3.5bn (€446m). Hydro has applied
for support under Enova’s programme
for climate technology totalling about half the
sum over a four-year period. If the project is
realised, Karmøy will host one of the most
energy-efficient aluminium smelters in the
world. Such a plant could begin production
in 2017.
rusal to invest in the
environmental upgrade of irkAZ
UC Rusal plans to invest RUR367.9m in
modernising gas treatment equipment at the
Irkutsk aluminium smelter (IrkAZ). According
to the emissions reduction plan, approved by
the Ministry of natural resources of the Irkutsk
region, between 2013 and 2015, seven electrostatic
precipitators in the third and fourth
potlines and six foam-type scrubbers in the
third potline will be replaced at the smelter.
An electrostatic precipitator in Potline 4
was replaced with a new horizontal-type
precipitator already in October this year. The
cost of the project amounted to RUR60m.
Another electrostatic precipitator is planned
to be installed in Potline 4 in 2014. The new
equipment is 5% more efficient and will capture
up to 99% of particulate fluorides and
potroom dust. Three foam-type scrubbers
have been replaced in Potline 3 and the fourth
scrubber is to be installed by the end of this
year. This will result in the capture of at least
98.5% of hydrogen fluoride (HF) and sulphur
dioxide emissions, reduce energy consumption
and decrease the cost of foam-type scrubbers’
cleaning.
The environmental upgrade will also see
the completion of construction at section No
2 of the red mud disposal area No 3, creating
a storage area for liquid production waste,
reducing the risk of pollution of soil and underground
waters.
ormet shuts down Hannibal operations
US aluminium company Ormet, based in
Hannibal / Ohio, announced in October that
it would immediately shut down operations
after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
(Puco) had denied Ormet’s request for an energy
transition plan that would allow it to operate
while constructing an onsite natural gas
based power generation facility. Due to this
decision, Ormet cannot emerge from bankruptcy.
Ormet was forced to file for bankruptcy
in February this year due to low metal prices
and high and uncontrollable power costs. The
Ohio Power industrial rate which establishes
the base rate for Ormet to procure power has
increased from USD39.66/MWh, when the
Unique Arrangement (UA) was established in
2009, to USD60.83/MWh in September 2013,
which is an increase of over 53%. During the
same period, wholesale power costs in the
region have decreased by over 10%. At full
operations, Ormet’s projected 2014 energy
cost would reflect an increase of USD108m,
before the potential discount of USD54m as
provided for in the Puco ruling.
➝
the Author
The author, Dipl.-Ing. R. P. Pawlek is founder
of TS+C, Technical Info Services and Consulting,
Sierre (Switzerland), a service for the primary
aluminium industry. He is also the publisher
of the standard works Alumina Refineries and
Producers of the World and Primary Aluminium
Smelters and Producers of the World. These
reference works are continually updated, and
contain useful technical and economic information
on all alumina refineries and primary
aluminium smelters of the world. They are
available as loose-leaf files and / or CD-ROMs
from Beuth-Verlag GmbH in Berlin.
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